These Northern Cape tented camps give travellers a first-hand experience of the vast space and silence that best characterises South Africa’s biggest, and least-populated, province.
The Northern Cape is home to some of the country’s most beautiful attractions – the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Augrabies Falls, and Namaqualand, to name the more obvious ones.
Best known for its red sand dunes, desert landscape and spring time flowers the Northern Cape’s scenery is indescribably beautiful, but often harsh. And in summer, in the heat of the year, its northerly reaches can seem both barren and intimidating.
Distances between little towns are huge. Most of it lies in the great Karoo Basin littered with Dolerite intrusions and scatterings of sedimentary rock – more of a moonscape than land for habitation.
And then comes the spring, when Northern Cape tented camps are one of the best ways of exploring this part of the world.
Then the high-lying south and south-east of the province – better known as the Nuweveld and Roggeveld – burst into flower, dependent on seasonal rains. This is echoed on the west coast in the now famous Namaqualand, where granite hills and seaside towns provide a bird’s eye view of carpets of flowers.
Draining the interior of the province is the Gariep or Orange River, the only source of water other than the meagre 400 mm of annual rain in the more arid parts of the Northern Cape.
It’s a province that once experienced, demands a re-visit.
Here are Northern Cape tented camps perfect for a glamping weekend…
Karoo Gariep Nature Reserve Tented Camp, Hanover
Stay in tents on the sunset side of this guest farm in the Karoo Gariep Conservancy, where you have also see the only hippos in the Northern Cape.
Set in the shade of old Tamarisk trees, overlooking the plains of the Karoo, your tent is equipped with one double and two single beds in 2 sections. Bathrooms are communal.
You’re also metres from the Seekoei River.
Highlight: braais, pool, a farm restaurant serving organic lamb, trips to see the hippos in the Karoo Gariep Nature Reserve, as well as over 200 species of birds. Explore Nieu Bethesda and Graaff-Reinet as day trips.
Mattanu Private Game Reserve, Barkly West
The five luxurious tents offer accommodation for family, friends or small groups. Decorated in an African design, the tents have a full en-suite bathroom, air conditioning and underfloor heating.
Accommodation is offered on a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast basis and includes an afternoon and morning game drive.
Highlight: Mattanu Private Game Reserve is the only reserve in the country where on can view breeding programs of roan, sable, buffalo, tsessebe and Livingtone Eland.
Have you been to any of these Northern Cape tented camp? We’d love to hear about your experiences …
